Rivalries And Friendship
by o0RainbowParadise0o
Summary: A seven-year-old girl named Valarie Peterson never wanted to be a paladin. She doesn't want to slay the undead. Yet when she finds an undead girl nearly drowning in a river, will her actions speak as loud as her words?


A/N: Being the gaming nerd I am, it was only a matter of time before I made a warcraft story!

XD

I wrote this for a 100 Theme Challenge.

I hope you guys enjoy~

Disclaimer: I do not own World of Warcraft or any of the Warcraft games. However, this story and the characters in it are mine!

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For as long as I or anyone could remember, the war between the Alliance and the Horde has been raging on for dozens of centuries. The bitter rivalry between them would never come to an end. Members of the Alliance would always scorn the Hordes and vise versa. Even with the threat of the races going extinct, the bloody battles only became even more gruesome. Even with food becoming scarce, wars of hatred and spite continued to rise up in various places. I wish everyone would see how much damage we're all doing to ourselves because of these wars and battles. However, what do I know? I'm just a kid.

Being only seven, everyone saw me as naive and childish. I don't believe myself to be childish. In fact, I don't act like most children my age. My teachers and mentors always tell my parents they're concerned about me since I always seem to be doing odd things like draw wolves and windriders happily playing with gryphons and nightsabers. Everyone knows that wolves and windriders are evil creatures representing the Horde while gryphons and nightsabers were creatures of the Alliance. I, however, could care less. I think if someone stuck a nightsaber and wolf together at birth, they'd be the best of friends.

These little things that I did never went unnoticed by my parents. Being the daughter of two paladins, I was expected to grow up to become a paladin. Everyone knew the bloodline of the Peterson's, so it was only expected that I, Valarie Peterson, was to be another great, righteous paladin of the Peterson's.

Yet, I didn't want to be a paladin. I would never voice this to my parents, of course, but I didn't want to slay the undead and help fight the Horde. I believe the undead have every right as we—humans—do. They aren't dead. They're _un_dead. They live and breath as humans do. The only difference between humans and the undead is that the undead were given a second chance at life—they have already died once. Why should we be the ones to decide whether or not we should take their second chances away from them?

And again, what do I know? I'm just a naive child who knows nothing of these wars and battles. I was suppose to uphold the Holy Light and destroy these horrid creatures from the world. To say the least, I'm not happy with this life I lead. I don't want to be a paladin—a guardian of the Holy Light and slayer of the undead. I want to be a priestess. I want to heal, not kill.

While thinking about all of this, I stared at my reflection in a small pond. I kicked a pebble into the water and watched as tiny waves rippled. I examined my sad appearance. My golden blond hair came down a bit past my shoulders. Some bangs fell into my silvery-gray eyes that currently looked like storm clouds.

The sun had already begun the set and soon nightfall would fall over Duskwood. I turned, ready to head home. I didn't want to be late getting home. My parents would throw a fit if I were late.

I froze in mid-step when I heard the sound of a stunned shrill that was quickly followed by a splashing noise. I turned and hurried towards the sound, finding myself near the river that separated Duskwood from Elwynn Forest. I stood in shock for a moment. Within the river wasn't a human—or anyone of the Alliance, but a member of the Horde. To be specific, she was a member of the undead.

After coming over my shock, I narrow my eyes with determination. I quickly turn to one of the trees and snap off a seemingly durable branch. I hurried over to the riverside and held the branch out. The girl who was flailing about within the water stared at me with wide, green eyes. She was probably surprised by the fact that a human discovered her.

"Grab onto the branch!" I ordered quickly as I held out the branch as far as I could.

She hesitated before nodding. I could guess she was worried that I might try to drown her in some way. As soon as she held onto the branch, I began to pull her in. While tugging, I felt my feet begin to slide in the mud of the bank. A lost my balance for a moment. Luckily, instead of falling forward into the river, I fell backwards. I hurriedly pulled myself out of the mud and crawled over to the river's edge. I reached out my hand for her to take it. Not wanting to be in the river anymore, she gripped my hand.

Suddenly, a chill raced up my spine. It was at that moment I realized that she didn't have a flesh and blood, right hand. Her ivory, skeleton fingers wrapped around my hand, gripping me tightly. I felt her go rigid and out of the corner of my eyes, I saw her green eyes widen with fear—afraid that I would suddenly push her back into the river. With my eyes still locked on her bony hand, I reached out with my other hand to grab her. I pulled and tugged, trying to get her onto the shore. Luckily this time, I didn't trip or falter.

The two of us plopped down into the mud. We breathed heavily as we tried to recover from all of our efforts. I sat cross legged while she knelt on the ground, both of her knees and palms digging into the muddy earth. My gray eyes stared her, fearful yet fascinated by her presence. She appeared to be my age. Her skin was of a pale, sky blue pigment. Her short, violet hair brushed the middle of her neck. Her short-sleeved, gray shirt revealed her right, skeleton hand. On her left arm, the joint that connected her forearm to her upper arm was skeleton; her only the bone of her elbow joint could be seen, no flesh or skin. Her navy blue shorts also revealed that her left leg, from her knee down, was skeleton. With her right side to me, I could now see a scar that went down the right side of her face. It looked like she had been sliced by a small sword or some kind of dagger at one point.

I slowly scooted forward and extended my hand as a greeting. "Hello, I'm—."

Once the girl noticed I had moved closer to her, she shuffled away from me as fast as she could, her feet digging into the mud as she tried to push herself away from me. I frowned sadly for a moment, hurt that she rejected my greeting. I tried again, this time without extending my hand for a handshake. "I'm Valarie Peterson."

Giving her a warmhearted smile, her green eyes cautiously searched me. "Are you okay?" I asked her, wanting to make sure she didn't get hurt while in the river. When she remained silent, I started to wonder. _Maybe undead can't talk. I never really thought about that._

I was about to open my mouth to apologize about my expectations when the undead girl spoke quietly, "I'm okay, I guess...."

A wide smile spread across my face as my eyes lit up. "That's good," I beamed while introducing myself again, "I'm Valarie. What's your name?"

"Lekarra." Even though she was talking in a whisper, I noticed her voice sounded naturally rugged and hoarse. I didn't mind though. It wouldn't scare me if she talked in her regular voice level.

"Lekarra? That's a neat name. I've never heard of anyone with that name before." I felt excitement surging through my insides. _I can't believe it!_ My mind shouted. _I'm finally coming face to face with an undead!_

"I've never heard of the name Valarie before either." Lekarra admitted with a small smile.

As she began to move forward into a more comfortable sitting position, she winced with pain. She began to hold her right leg as she let out a small hiss of tension. I frowned and tilted my head slightly as I stared at the knee she was holding. "Are you sure you're all right?"

Lekarra dipped her head down, her chin now digging into her chest. "It....I hit it against a rock when I fell into the river." She whispered.

I gave her a reassuring smile as I scooted up closer to her. "I can help. Let me see." As I reached out towards her knee, she flinched her leg away. She shook her head vigorously. "No! No! No!" She cried out in terror. "I know the name Peterson. You're a paladin! You'll—!"

"I won't hurt you." I firmly told her as I gazed straight into her eyes. Emerald searched through silver as I breathed, "I promise."

Moments of silence passed as Lekarra began to debate on whether or not she wanted my help. Her gaze moved away from mine and fell onto her knee. Then she slowly glanced over at the river and then back to her knee again. She let out a small sigh before nodding slowly. "Okay...."

I carefully placed my hands right above Lakarra's injured knee. I closed my eyes as I began to concentrate. After a few seconds, my hands began to faintly glow a pale golden color. I heard Lekarra tense for a moment before comfortably relaxing. After a few moments, my hands stop glowing and I brought them back to my side. I gazed up at her and gave her a smile. "Better?"

Lekarra gave me a confused look. "That wasn't a paladin spell. My mother's a priestess. I know that spell. That's a priestess spell."

I nodded. "Yeah, I know." I looked away, slightly ashamed as I admitted, "I never wanted to be a paladin. I'm trying to learn some priestess spells. Right now I'm still working on my Lesser Healing spell." I looked back at her knee and then up at her. "Did it work?"

Lekarra smiled contently and nodded. "Yes, it worked." She bent her knee, testing it out and nodded again. "Thank you, Valarie."

I giggled happily before saying, "You're welcome."

After that, the two of us talking about many things. She asked me why I would ever want to help a Horde member. After I explained to her why, I asked her questions. The two of us went back and forth with questions and answers as the nightfall took over the lands. Even knowing that the two of us would soon have to part, we talked, laughed, and enjoyed each other's company.

Together, the two of us did something no one else would dare do. I being a human and Lekarra being an undead, we did the unspeakable. We formed a friendship. A friendship that would stay with us for the rest of our lives, even if we were to never see each other again. Within all of the bitter rivalry between the Alliance and the Horde, we knew that our friendship would last in our memories and hearts forever.

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:3

Please review~


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